Cambridge gets new funding to help tackle rough sleeping

CAMBRIDGE City Council is receiving additional funding of £70,000 during the current year to help tackle rough sleeping in Cambridge, under the government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI).

The extra money will be used to fund a three-part integrated programme of assistance for people on the streets of Cambridge. The programme will:

Allow the police and other agencies to be out on the streets between 11pm and 2am issuing advice and assistance to people sleeping rough and begging;

Ensure anyone in immediate need of accommodation on a particular night is directed to a place where a safe bed will be waiting for them;

Provide rough sleepers assisted by the programme with a specially-funded worker, who will work with them to find a more permanent housing solution.

This programme will initially run for eight nights each month. During the winter it will integrate with the council’s severe weather provision, which sees dozens of additional beds provided for rough sleepers when the weather is bad.

Cllr Richard Johnson, Executive Councillor for Housing, said: “Competition to get this funding was strong. Only 83 English local authorities out of 353 were awarded a grant under this programme.

“To win the award officers from central government looked closely at the range of services for rough sleepers we have in the city, so this money can be seen as an endorsement of what we do currently and what we plan to do in the future.”

A further £94,000 of funding has also provisionally been awarded to the council for 2019-20.